An Unwritten History
by fireofthetorch
Summary: Fourteen years ago, a girl with amnesia is found in the middle of a desert. But what does this have to do with Black Hole returning in the modern day? Everything.
1. Find

Fourteen years ago in the Al-Malik Desert…

"Stay alert, they could come from anywhere."

"Yes, ma'am!" The officer nodded back to the soldiers in her care. She looked around and noted every soldier's position in the vast desert. She looked back to enemy base that was faintly visible in the approaching sand storm. _"Get in, get the files, and get out,"_ she repeated over and over in her head. She was nervous, but that was to be expected. This was her first real combat mission, her first time actually having lives in her hands, and being calm under stress wasn't her forte in Basic.

"Let's go, and stay low!" She and the other soldiers moved out slowly and quietly. They continued this as the base slowly began to come better into view. Yet as they approached on the base, she felt more and more tense. She had just been promoted to Captain before she was deployed, but that was for her academics and marksmanship, with her Commanding Officer being reluctant with her promotion because of her lack of ability in being a calm leader under stress. She had always been insecure in her leadership abilities, but she had slowly become better through joining the army.

"Everybody down!" On her order, they all went down into a belly crawl. She and her soldiers continued on, while she kept her gaze tight on the base ahead of them. Her stomach was churning; she wanted to just jump up and runaway, but she forced herself to continue on through her fears. Courage, to her, was not being without fear, but continuing on through her fears. She froze with fear, though, when she heard the gunfire ring out. She had done what she had feared most. She had walked them right into the enemy's trap and they were surrounded.

"Take cover and fire back!" she shouted after take a moment to regain her composure so her voice wouldn't come out weak and timid. With the combined efforts of the soldiers, they were able to rout the enemy. As they surveyed the battlefield after the gun fight, they noticed that the number of enemy combatants was strikingly small. But having no time to think on the matter, the soldiers continued on through a small pass between two raised plateaus leading to the base. As they came out, they were met with a bloody scene. Someone had already obliterated the enemy, and the combatants they had met earlier were likely the lone survivors.

The Captain ordered her men to search the area, for the files and any other survivors. Meanwhile she searched the middle area of the base along with a young Corporal. She could hardly bear to stand; the smell of death was thick in the base. She turned her head to the right and she noticed a girl's body among those of the dead enemy soldiers. She had been trained to let go of her emotions and not let them get in the way of the mission, but she couldn't stop herself. She walked over to pile of bodies and felt for a pulse from the girl's body. She felt the blood pumping through the girl's body; the Captain pulled back violently. She had hoped for a pulse, but she didn't expect one. She shouted out to the medic in her group, who came quickly. As he treated the girl's wounds as much as he could on scene, the Captain ordered another soldier to radio for assistance from headquarters.

She looked on as the medic tried to save the faint life. The girl appeared to be in her early teens, with reddish-orange hair that came below her shoulders. She had a gunshot wound to the right side of her chest and appeared to be wounded less severely around her face and arms. The girl was wearing a pair of torn jeans, with a white crew neck T-shirt, and a light blue jacket over that. The jacket was the first thing the medic removed, considering it was about one hundred and ten degrees outside and increasing her internal body temperature wasn't going to help. The Captain moved her view from the girl to the sky as she heard chopper blades approach. She had hope; maybe this girl could be saved. She didn't ask to become a victim of war; war chose her. The Captain was awaked from her thoughts when she felt something warm trickle down her hand. She looked down to see that her hand was bathed in blood.


	2. Introduction

"Why did Black Hole have to come back?!" a small boy cried as he leaned back in his chair.

"Hush, Andy. It's bad enough that they've returned; I don't want to listen to you complaining about it!"a behemoth of a man answered from across the table.

"But, Max…"

"Quiet. If Sami were here—"

"But I am here." The two men turned with despair to where the voice came from, before them stood a short, red haired Commanding Officer.

"When did you get here?" Max asked with a hint of fear in his voice.

"A little while ago. So, continue. If I were here… what?"

"If you were here Andy wouldn't be so quick to whine." He slowed his speech, unwary about what he could say that could set her off. Sami gave him a sadistic smile as he finished.

"What are you so afraid off?" It was a rhetorical question; she knew the answer. She and Max had been working together for about five years now, and he had learned quickly not to make her angry. "You're right, y'know."

"Right," he answered with an uncomfortable chuckle.

"Hey, Sami, why are you in civies? Nell say the uniform was the service dress," Andy finally chimed in.

"I know that. I just had to catch such a quick flight from Hawaii to get here; I didn't have time to change. But, that's why I keep a uniform here in my office for just such a case."

"Hawaii? You went on vacation with Eagle?" Sami scoffed.

"Why do you two always assume if I go out, I went with Eagle?"

"Well, did you?"

"Yes, but that's beside the point. Sonja was there too."

"Yeah, but you're not dating Sonja." Max cringed as he realized that Andy's quick mouth was about to get him into trouble with Sami again. When he lifted his head back up and looked over at her, he realized he was right. She was in her traditional 'mad Sami' pose. Her head was facing downward and to the left with her eyes closed. She had her mouth in her trademark scowl with quiet growling under her breath.

Max didn't really know why, but for some reason Eagle was a touchy subject for her. As far as he could figure, it was because it was be the most 'girly' type thing he had ever seen her do. Sami was a stereotypical tomboy to the infinite degree. This was odd, considering she was best friends with Sonja, who was one of the more 'girly' women in their group of Commanding Officers. He also knew that touchy subject with Sami had to be handled with care because she also had the stereotypical 'Irish temper'. Sami was more proof to Max of his belief that the military brings out the scariest side in women. But she'd probably be almost as scary as she is now if she hadn't joined the Marine Corps. That was just her nature; she didn't like being pushed around or thought of as weak; she made strides to make herself stronger, so no one could call her weak.

"Shut it, Andy." Sami swiftly turned around and walked to her office. Max looked over at his frightened comrade. _"Poor boy, he doesn't even know what he said to set her off."_ He sighed as he looked on the confused face.

"Andy, do you think before you speak?"

"Um, no."

"You should." The both looked at the door that went into the room when someone else entered the room.

"Hey, you guys are early." The men saw a tall, young man followed by a somewhat shorter woman.

"You two came together?" Max asked.

"Yeah," the man replied, "Rachel wanted to get here early, and her car's in the shop, so she called me." Andy opened his mouth to reply.

"Andy, are you sure you want to say that?" Max stopped him. Andy thought a moment.

"No."

"Let me guess, Sami's already here?"

"Of course I'm already here, Rachel. Why wouldn't I be?" Sami spoke as she re-entered the room in her service dress.

"You're already in your uniform?! It's been like five minutes!"

"I've always been a little bit of a speed demon, Max."

"Well, that explains why you own a Mustang, Dudet."

"Hey, Jake, I didn't see you there."

"Yes, that's because I was hiding behind Rachel."

"Very funny." Sami walked over and took a seat at the table Max and Andy were sitting at. Rachel and Jake followed.

"How come when I say something funny you get mad at me, but Jake says something funny you don't get mad at him?"

"Well, Andy, that would be because he is actually funny."

"Alright, will you guys stop bickering enough to listen to me?" Everyone was shock to realize that she was there.

"Hey, Nell," Max began, "When'd you get here?"

"Since before Sami." Nell took her seat at the head of the table and looked back with a smile at the fearful faces. "But, whatever, let's get down to business."


	3. Sarissa

The Captain stood in the viewing room outside of the main patient room of the hospital. The girl was in a bed a couple feet from the other side of the window the Captain was looking through.

"How is she, Captain?" She turned to see a two-star general had entered the room.

"General…"

"Just answer the question."

"She's stable, but she has yet to wake up, sir."

"Did you find anything that could tell us who she is?"

"No, sir, she had nothing on her."

"Hm, interesting. I wonder what a girl would be doing in the enemy compound." He watched as the girl moved on the bed. "She seems to be waking up. Go see what you can find out from her." The Captain went through the formalities and walked to the main room. She walked over to the girl and leaned over so she could get a better view of the girl. The girl took notice of the Captain and looked up at her with her hazel eyes. The girl was afraid; her eyes never met with the Captain's, and as the Captain drew closer she pushed herself away.

"W-who are you?" Her voice was quiet and faulty.

"I'm Captain Nell Fitzgerald of the Orange Star Army. Now, who are you?"

"I-I don't… know."

"Can you remember anything else? Like how old you are, where you're from?"

"No, nothing." The girl sat up in the bed. "Where am I?"

"St. Josef Military hospital in Blue Moon."

"How'd I get here?"

"Well," the Captain started as she moved to sit on the bed, "I was leading a squad on a mission in the Al-Malik desert; we came upon an enemy base, found you injured there and transported you here."

"Al…Malik?" The girl looked down as she talked. She only rarely tilted her head up to catch a glimpse of the Captain.

"Yes, do you remember something?"

"No…" The girl's head sunk lower. "Why was I there?"

"We were hoping you could tell us." The Captain looked away from the girl so see a nurse waiting for her to leave. "Look, the nurses need to treat you now, so I've got to go, but I'll be back later." She stood back up and walked to the observation room.

"So?" The Captain looked up at him. It was Major General Richard Burns of the Orange Star Marine Corps.

"She doesn't remember anything, sir." The General moved his eyes off of the girl to the Captain but without moving his head. The Captain was somewhat daunted by his cold stare. She was relieved when he moved his gaze away.

"When doctors will allow it, we're going to take her back to where you found her. It may help jog her memory." The Captain now stood at the General's right side. She didn't dare look up at him.

"Um, sir, why are you here?"

"Black Hole doesn't have a history of attacking civilians. Besides the 'enemy combatants' you found were actually from the Sarissan Royal Guard."

"Sarissan?"

"It's not surprising that you haven't heard about the country of Sarissa. It was a small country at the eastern edge of Blue Moon. About five years ago, a group came to the forefront wanting to change Sarissa into a modern country and change its name to Black Hole."

"Black Hole?"

"Yes, this group was stopped from implementing its plans, though, by the king. Five days after that, the king was assassinated and his two daughters went missing. The country fell in to a horrible anarchy, with the Black Hole group against those who stayed loyal to old Sarissa. Black Hole was able to persuade some of the personnel in the Sarissan military to join them, so Black Hole uses a slightly modified version of the Sarissan Royal Guard. Which is why you were confused on the identity of the combatants."

"So this girl might be—"

"Yes, she might be Sarissan, which puts it under my supervision."

"Why under yours?"

"I'm heading up the Allied Coalition's investigation into the events that happened to Sarissa that lead to Black Hole. That girl might just be the key to it all."


	4. Holidays

"Alright! It's party time!" Andy shouted as he uncorked a fresh bottle of wine.

"I'm just glad we routed Black Hole in time for the holidays," Max added as he took the first glass. "And we're all finally together again! That doesn't happen too often, huh?"

"Actually, not everybody's here yet." The voice came from an approaching woman. She walked with a poise that was hardly seen in common practice. She held a glass of red wine, also with some sense of elegance.

"What are you talking about, Sonja?"

"Two Commanding Officers have yet to appear." Her voice held a faux sense of seriousness, which was given away by her sheepish smile.

"Two?"

"Just guess who, Max." He had a suspicion of who it could be, and as he looked around the room, he realized he was right.

"Let's see, a pilot and a marine." He looked back at Sonja with the same type of sheepish smile she had.

"You looked around the room."

"Only to be sure," Max replied with a sigh. "Sami must be one of the most interesting women to date."

"She's in a rare class of women." Sonja sat down in a chair across from him. "Most women aren't marines, have a general for a father, and more 'guyish' than some guys."

"Yeah, but she doesn't strike anyone as the 'love bird' type, so just her dating is odd enough for me."

"By the same token, Eagle isn't the normal man."

"Anyone who dates her isn't normal."

"Excuse me?!" Max shot a quick glance behind him. _"Crap! How does she always show up after I say something stupid?!" "_I didn't quite catch that last part."

"I said anyone who dates you isn't normal because they can see how wonderful you are." He tried his hardest to portray that those words were the truth. He could tell by the look on her face that it wasn't working.

"That's a bunch of bull." She had an annoyed look on her face, but to Max's relief, she lit up with a smile. "But, it's the holidays, so I'll let you off." He let out a sigh.

He wasn't as afraid of her now, so he took note of what she was wearing. As he looked, he was shocked. She was wearing a forest green turtleneck with brown dress pants. He almost wanted to ask who died. She still wasn't wearing make-up, but she didn't need to. Max had to stop his train of thought. He grimaced on the inside. _"What am I thinking?! I can't really be finding her all that attractive, can I?!" _It wasn't the first time he had thought this. He had found her attractive before, when he first saw her, but after he 'met' her, everything changed.

"Max?" He awoke from his thoughts to see Sami slowly waving her hand inches from his face. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I little too much to drink I guess."

"Sure," she replied uneasily. Max watched as she walked over to the pool table. Sami looked to see the interesting sight at it. Grit, dressed in his traditional trench coat and cowboy hat was being held at bay by a pool stick held by Javier. He held it like the pool stick was a rapier out in his left hand while the rest of his body; dressed in clothing that looked like it was from the eighteenth century, was in a fencing position. Meanwhile, their pool partners; Sasha for Grit and Jess for Javier, stood at a distance, dismayed by the sight.

"Did Grit insult Javier's 'pool honor'?" Jess let out an exasperated breath at Sami's comment.

"Doth thou dare to trample upon Javier's honour?! Thy shall not have the honour of hitting in the yonder eight ball!" Javier continued his rant as Grit continued to lean farther away from the end of the pool stick.

"Hey, ya'll? Can't I get a translator person over here? 'Cause he's a-howling in city slicker to a good ole boy."

"Sorry, l-laddie. But none of these lad and lathies can understand this laddie's s-singo, but I figures that if ya use your s-soaf, you shouldn't have no problems." Drake had walked into the conversation from the bar. He'd been drinking too much, and his speech was slurred, which made him even harder to understand.

"We need a translator for all of them," Sasha managed. Her shoulders were slumped forward instead of being back in a dignified manner like they usually were. Jess became even more frustrated, seeing as she had to work directly alongside two of the dialect culprits. Sami was one of the few who were thoroughly entertained by the scene.

The moment was interrupted when cruise missiles began bombarding the base. All of the Commanding Officers braced for the impact from more missiles. The lights went out and the room went dark.

"Ow! Javier, you hit me with that doggone pool stick!" Grit cried out in the dark.

"My deepest apologies to thee."

"We kept beating them, but we never fully rout them!" Jess verbalize what all of the other Commanding Officers were thinking, but for some, in nicer words.


	5. Traveling

The Captain looked across the jeep at the girl. They were traveling in a modified recon jeep use by the Green Earth military. The back seats were repositioned to face inwards toward the other seats. They were headed back to the Al-Malik Desert in hopes that the girl could regain some of her memories. It'd been about three weeks since she was found. The military needed a name to call her on the books, and the girl pick 'Samantha'. For some reason, that name was familiar to her.

Samantha was looking outside. It was raining; a rare occurrence in the desert. Her eyes carried a sense of fear as she watched the rain quickly pour down. The Captain wondered about what she was afraid of. She quickly had the broad list of fears down to two logical answers. Either she was afraid of what her memories would hold or she was afraid of not being able to regain her memories. Regardless of which one it was, her fears had something to do with her memories.

"Are you alright?" the Captain asked after a long silence. Samantha looked down with her head low.

"I'm fine." Satisfied that she had answered the question, she looked back out at the rain. The jeep remained silent except for the occasional radio chatter.

The rain continued as they traveled in the desert. Thunder and lightning approached and slowly grew nearer. This concerned the Captain. She had never liked thunder and lightning. It was random, unpredictable; she hated it. She always liked things that were regimented and orderly. That made her feel even more for Samantha.

She had her life thrown in to chaos, and she doesn't even know why. Nobody knows who she is, not even herself. The Captain felt for her, more so than anyone would figure. Samantha reminded her of her younger sister. They looked somewhat similar, though her sister was two years younger. They were both quiet and reserved. Although her sister was reserved because that was her personality, but Samantha was reserved because she probably doesn't know how to express her feeling or whether her feelings are normal.

The General watched on as the Captain contemplated about the girl looking out the window. Neither of them seemed to pay any mind to him, but that didn't bother him. Samantha seemed to have some fears and doubts about this trip, and the Captain seemed to be reminiscing about the past. He had estimated that Samantha would be a complex person to figure out, but the Captain was becoming even more complicated. She was reserved, but he couldn't tell whether that was because she was a new leader or if that was just her natural personality.

He was starting to loathe the complexity of life. Two complex women, at least more complex than the average woman, and the complexity of the foundation of Black Hole and the destruction of Sarissa. The rain soothed his anxiety. It was simple, clouds become fully saturated; down comes rain. Also, all rain, at least to him, had certain rhythm to it. A beat; simple and non-annoying. He closed his eyes, trying to forget the world around him.

The General had picked a bad time though; the jeep quickly came to a stop at a hill leading up to the military compound. They all got out, somewhat hurried as the jeep was uncomfortably cramped. The General and the Captain were both wearing the field combat uniform of their respective military branch. Samantha wore a used, oversized Marine Corp combat uniform. If it wasn't for the sobering effect of the rain, it would have been a humorous to see the small girl swamped by the uniform.

They started up the short trek to the compound. The Captain helped the poor girl up most of the way because she had yet to fully recover from her injures. As Samantha appeared over the steep hill, her eyes focused on one spot. She pulled away from the Captain and ventured to the spot. A somewhat medium size boulder stood there surrounded by smaller rocks. Even on this dark and rainy day, she was able to tell what was once there. She guided her hand over a specific part of the blood, where scarlet red blood had turned in to a more rustic hue.

"Do you remember something?" Samantha looked up to see the Captain standing a distance away, noting her every move.

"No." She moved her gaze back to where her hand rested on the cold, heartless stone. "This blood…it just seems… odd."

"What do you mean odd?" The Captain strode over to get a better look at the blood in question.

"I don't know. It just doesn't seem right to me."

"This was where I found you." Samantha jerked a bit at the statement.

"This-this is my b-blood." She removed her shaking hand from the rock.

"Probably." The Captain grimaced as she realized her last word didn't help. "Why don't you come with me and look around the rest of the base. You may remember something." Samantha followed the Captain throughout the compound.

They returned to the jeep after awhile. The General glanced at the Captain, who shook her head. He looked over at Samantha, who was already entering the jeep. He did so as well, followed by the Captain. The rain continued as the jeep headed away. Samantha sat with head hung extremely low. She used her long hair to hide the warm tears that now flooded her eyes.


	6. Declassified

"Man! This fourth war with Black Hole is turning out to be the longest!" Andy leaned back in his chair in the dimly occupied conference room.

"Andy, this is the fifth war against Black Hole." He looked to see that Sonja had come in and sat down near him.

"What do you mean?"

"There was a war about fourteen years ago, when Black Hole made their debut."

"Fourteen years ago?"

"You're seriously hearing this for the first time?!" Andy and Sonja looked over to see Eagle, Sami's beau, standing a short distance away. His grayish-white hair moved only slightly as he shook his head.

"Well, it's not uncommon, Eagle," Sonja started. "He would have only been about eleven at the time."

"She's right." They all turned to see Sasha standing behind Sonja. "I knew there was a war that happened years ago, but I'm not so sure on all the details."

"I guess you're right. I've never heard anything during my service about it. I probably only know because my father fought in the war."

"You know, it might not be a bad idea to let the entire group know all of the details," Sonja proposed.

"We could also explain the whole 'Sarissa' thing, too."

"Eagle, how do you know about Sarissa?"

"Sami." Sonja was even more shocked then. _"How does Sami know about that?!"_ Most of the people who knew about Sarissa were either working on the research team during the war or researched it after the war, and Sami wouldn't fit in either of those categories.

Andy motioned for Sasha to come over. She obeyed and leaned over so he could whisper in her ear.

"I'm lost."

"You normally are, Andy," she whispered back. "But, I'm confused as well."

They all ended their conversations as the other Commanding Officers began entering the room. They had been gathered to be brief of the millionth return of Black Hole. Only three Commanding Officers weren't there: Sami, Grit, and Nell. Sami and Grit were on a joint command mission, while Nell was commanding the battlefront headquarters. After everyone had settled, Rachel began the briefing.

"With the return of Black Hole, the higher-ups have made a choice to let you guys in on some once classified information. Some of you might already know about this, but this is now going to be declassified only to the people in this room as well as the three Commanding Officers on mission right now."

Sonja shot a glance over to Eagle. It seemed what they had wanted to propose had already been approved.

"So," Rachel continued, "to brief you on this formerly classified information is OS Marine Corp General Richard Burns." A tall, fit man walked in. His hair was overly gray, but still held some reddish strands to show what color his hair once was. On his epilates were four silver stars, highly polished to show his pride for his achievement.

"I'll jump right into it. In the thirteenth century a small country named Sarissa emerged at the eastern edge of Blue Moon." As the Marine General spoke a projection screen slowly dropped into position behind him. After in was in place, a picture illuminated the screen. It was a map showing the exact location of Sarissa to the Commanding Officers.

"It was a peaceful country. It held no value to be conquered and stayed in good relations with all of its neighbors, and so Sarissa was never in danger of being overthrown from the outside or within." General Burns looked up to make sure that he still had the room's attention.

"About nineteen years ago, a militant in-house group appeared in Sarissa. They were adamantly opposed by the king at the time, Charles Harrison Regulis. A few months after the king laid down the law with the group, he ended up assassinated and his two daughters seemingly vanished."The screen had filed through several pictures, one in particular being of the last royal family of Sarissa.

"After the king's assassination, the country slowly faded into the annals of history. But the proud country tried its hardest not to fade quietly. The Sarissan Royal Guard along with the other branches on the Sarissan military defended their country valiantly to the death. By the time the superpowers of the world began to view the events in Sarissa as a threat, Sarissa no longer existed." As the General took a second look around the room, he was met by confused stares.

"Many of you must be confused on how this relates to Black Hole today," he began again. "The group that enacted the coup called themselves 'Black Hole'." The revelation was met by some scattered gasps of awe. The general expected this, however. Black Hole was now a highly sophisticated organization; most people wouldn't believe that the evil organization had its beginnings in a small unknown country.

"Now," the General somewhat exaggerated the word in order to bring back the attention of his shock-ridden audience, "based on the interrogations of former Black Hole personnel, we have found out about the existence of a complex hierarchy above the Commanding Officers you have been dealing with." His audience's surprised faces were going to remain like that for a while as he continued.

"This hierarchy is mainly made up of Sarissan who were disloyal to the crown. While we know the nationality of the members, their true identities elude us. Unfortunately, based on the interrogations and our own independent sources, we believe that most of the members of this hierarchy are living faux normal lives in many of the major nations around the world." The Commanding Officers were now shock to the core.

"While we have the DNA of a supposed Sarissan, her DNA shows no outstanding differences from that of any other member of the general population; which means that these people are living among us, and we have no way of knowing who they are." The audience's faces had turned to the utmost look of fear.

"But there is some hope," he lowered the tone of his voice in order to reassure the audience of their safety, "if we can somehow destroy this hierarchy, we may be able to crush Black Hole once and for all."

He paused for a moment. "Any questions or comments?"


	7. Hurting

The Captain slowly opened the door and entered the private hospital room. It had been given to Samantha as she recovered. Normally, someone with her injures would still be out in the main room with the private room given to someone with more severe injuries, but St. Josef's decided with her extenuating circumstances to allow a exception to the hospital protocol.

As she entered the room, she saw Samantha at the far side of the room. She had her back to the Captain; she didn't even react when the Captain entered the room. She just continued to look out the window where it was snowing outside. She only tilted her head back for a split second as the Captain drew nearer.

That one second of eye contact was enough for the Captain to get a better idea of what was going on. Her eyes were watery, most likely from crying. They also showed signs of fear and anxiety. The Captain remained quiet for a little while longer. She didn't know off hand how to handle the situation. It had to be handled with the utmost delicacy, and she wasn't sure she could do that. She figured that it would just hurt Samantha more if she walked out and left now. So, she came up with the words and let them out.

"What's the matter?" Silence. The Captain slowly moved closer. There was something going on with her, and she couldn't keep it inside forever. The Captain placed a warm hand on Samantha's cold shoulder. The girl didn't react.

"You can tell me about it. What's the matter?" After being asked a second time, Samantha finally reacted. She turned swiftly and buried her head in the Captain's chest. The Captain tensed up for a moment, but then relaxed and continued to allow the young girl cry.

"I'm never going to remember anything!" the girl sobbed. The Captain felt for her; she was lost and scared. She felt alone. She was suffering badly.

"You don't know that." The Captain embraced her. She didn't know whether or not she was really helping Samantha, but she figured it couldn't hurt. However, the Captain didn't realize the impact of what she considered a simple gesture.

Samantha just wanted someone to really care about how she was feeling. Most of the people she had met were in the military and seemed cold and unemotional. Then, there were the therapists. They claimed they cared about her, but she could see right through them. Their bland words of "How does that make you feel?" only made her feel worse. No one seemed to care about her, just her memories. That is, no one except the Captain.

When she looked in the Captain's eyes, she saw the human emotion within her. Unlike the others, where she only saw cold, dead eyes. When the Captain asked how she was, there was actually feeling behind it. The Captain wasn't asking it because she had to, but because she actually cared.

The Captain started to pull away. "Look, I've got to get ba—"

"No!" Samantha burst out with a new set of tears. "Don't go. Please." The Captain moved back and embraced the girl again. The Captain knew she had to do her duty, but she just couldn't let her suffer like that alone.

"I'm not going anywhere." Samantha relaxed as the Captain reassured her. "I promise." Her promise came with some reservations. She wasn't sure how she was going to balance her duty and the girl's needs, but she couldn't sit by and leave her with no one to comfort her.

General Burns let out a rare smile as he looked upon the two women. Neither of them had noticed when he had entered the room, but that was for the better in his opinion. This scene was the reason he chose to keep Captain Fitzgerald back with him.

The General had realized early on that the girl was going to be a very sensitive person to deal with, and his investigative squad didn't have the most sensitive people in it. He had also noticed that the Captain was starting to turn in to most other soldiers he had seen in her position: cold, harsh, and emotionless. He had realized he could solve both problems with one solution. By keeping the Captain as extra help in this matter, he could teach her the importance of an emotional balance as well as comfort Samantha.

The scene had happened much quicker than he had calculated. The girl was more torn by this that he had thought, which sped up the process. It was actually for the better, he could now move on to the next step in his plan. He had inferred that without Samantha being comforted, it would be nearly impossible to get her to remember anything. Now, he could push her even more with confidence and the Captain was just the person to help with that step.

He turned to leave, but gave on last glance at them. He smiled again, know that his plan was working, but they usually did. He walked out, closing the door behind him quietly.


	8. Decryption

Sonja looked around the dark enemy base. It was filled with computers, monitors, servers, and other electrical equipment. The small screens flickering green and blue and red lights provided the only light in the room. She watched as a Commanding Officer strode across the room to her with the quintessential annoyed look.

"Finally, you arrive." Sonja rolled her eyes. She had expected this attitude.

"I'm five minutes late, Jess."

"Whatever. This appears to be the control room, so have fun." Jess gave her a smile and a light pat on her shoulder then walked out.

"Alright," she addressed the soldiers in the room, "let's get to work."

The personnel hastily got to work. The faster and more accurately they worked, they faster they'd be done, and the sooner they could stop looking at the computer screens. The hours passed by colorlessly and profitless. They had to remain vigilant; however, at any moment they could break through the last layer of encryption and find mounds of important intelligence.

Sonja sighed. Almost half a day and they had gotten nowhere. The encryption program used at this base was more sophisticated than the others Black Hole had used before. In fact, the program was more complicated than those used by the Allied Nations. But a more sophisticated program meant the more valuable the information.

"Ma'am?" She looked up at the soldier who had seemingly popped out of nowhere to be in front of her. He obviously was as tired as she was, having stared at an illuminated screen for twelve hours.

"Yes?"

"We've broken through the encryption to some basic information, ma'am." Sonja was relieved, at least a little bit. She knew better than to put too much hope in the preliminary information. The information they had just decrypted was probably the reports of the day to day details that didn't contain any sensitive information.

"What's it about?" She rubbed her eyes at the soldier began. She didn't find him boring, but the consistency of being let down.

Over and over a soldier would triumphantly proclaim, "Commander, we've broken through a wall of encryption!" At which point she would walk, a weak smile on her face, to the soldier. Only to watch as the screen reset with more encrypted code to unravel as the chorus of obscenities sung out again.

"It's about brainwashing, Commander. Apparently Black Hole was experimenting with it. We've found a list of people used in their experiments." The soldier handed Sonja a print out of the intelligence they had collected so far.

"Do we know how far their experiments have progressed?" She looked into the soldier's eyes as she talked. She knew what his answer was going to be before he even started.

"No, ma'am." Sonja looked back down as he finished.

"Which team decrypted this?" She continued to scan the paper for anything else that would be helpful.

"Baker team, ma'am." She looked up to give the room general orders.

"Alright." The soldier back away as her voice became louder to reach the entire room. "Baker team is going to work solely on the brainwashing encryption. The rest of you are to continue working on the general encryptions. Understood?"

The soldiers' voices boomed as they answered back. "Yes, ma'am!"

Sonja moved to an electronically empty corner of the room. She pulled up a chair at sat, never taking her eyes off of the print out. She skimmed through the names of the people, looking for anything that stood out.

She was through the three pages in no time. There was hardly anything to go on within those pages. All it listed was the name, age, height, weight, and year they were experimented on. About all she figured out was that all of these people had been experimented on within the last two years.

She threw the papers on the floor. They were getting somewhere, but not fast. Her eyelids drooped. She needed more caffeine and fast. She walked out into the somewhat cramped break room. It was primarily empty, considering most of the soldiers only took breaks to refill their coffee mugs.

They were brewing about the fiftieth pot of coffee. She lifted the pot off of the brewer and slowly began to pour coffee into her worn out mug. Sonja painfully tried to keep herself awake as not to overflow her mug.

Again, the same soldier from before came in to ruin her alone time. He walked to her, not realizing that she had noticed him from the moment he turned the doorknob. The soldier stop, no more than four paces away from her.

"What, Yamada?"

"Ma'am, we've decrypted reports on Black Hole's progress in the brainwashing experiments and more files on the people experimented on." She turned around at took a sip of her newly poured coffee. Even after one sip, she suddenly felt recharged.

"How far are they?"

"They've developed a chemical compound, that when injected into the body, creates complete amnesia."

"When did they develop this?" She set the mug back down. She was concerned; the three pages she had looked over had hundreds on names on them. If they had developed it before they used it on those people, they were looking at a lot of amnesiacs.

"We know that they had this technology at least a decade ago, but we have yet to decrypt any files from before eleven years ago." She muttered cursed under her breath, a rare occurrence.

She stirred with anger towards Black Hole's such lack of respect for people's memories that they would develop a serum to have them throw out the mind like garbage. Yet, at the same time, she was deeply curious as to why they would need the power to wipe away someone's memories.

"Keep decrypting and report back."

"Yes, ma'am! Here's the print out for this new information, Commander." She reached and took the papers from the young man.

"Thank you." She moved to turn, but saw that the soldier didn't move. "Well? You have your orders, now go."

"Yes, ma'am." The soldier, flustered, walked out of the break room. Sonja followed a couple of minutes later.

She retook her spot in the corner and began to scan at the new pages. Her eyes moved quickly as she went through page one and two and three until she was done with the six page report. She looked up at the clock that hanged near the opposite corner in the room. More time had passed as the clock's second hand remain ever moving, slowly churning the time away.

"Commander?!" A soldier's worried voice carried across the room to her. She rose and head toward where the sound had come from. The voice had come from a soldier in Baker team.

"Yes, what it is?" The soldier looked of her shoulder as her Commanding Officer grew nearer. Sonja caught a glimpse into the girl's eyes and saw paralyzing fear. The soldier didn't answer her Commander in words, but simply pointed to the backlit screen. Sonja pulled up right behind the soldier and started to read the synopsis on the computer screen.

It read, _"17-July-2123 Supply request: Beta."_

"2123? That's sixteen years ago!" Sonja muttered in disbelief. She shook her head and continued reading.

_"We've completed the memory loss serum. Our works have finally proven fruitful. Lab rat number 12035 has shown, after being inject with the compound, to have complete memory loss of a maze that it has been made familiar with through the past three years. The same has happened to lab rat__s__ numbers 10506 and 20963. We scientist now request human subjects in order to test the po__tency of the serum in the human species._

_We all here feel that the serum can be effectively used by the up and coming Black Hole military__ force__. Such as destroying the memories of soldiers or civilians who know more than they should or peoples containing information that was once declassified but has been classified for the success of the military organization._

_Sincerely,  
__Dr. Sergei Revmir"_

Sonja muttered unintelligible words under her breath, most likely in her native Japanese. The soldier who had called her over just stared at her Commanding Officer's furious face.

"Ma'am, I have another print out of human test subjects from 2123 to 2125." Sonja looked down at the girl and took the papers from her.

"Keep working on it."

"Yes, ma'am." Sonja walked back to her spot and began to skim again. She worked her way through the first four pages in the fifteen page report before stopping at a peculiar name on the fifth sheet.

_"Samantha Regulis__; 14; 155 cm;__ 52 kg; __31-December-__2124."_

"Samantha… Regulis? Isn't that the daughter of?" Sonja was unsure of herself. She walked over Baker team to Yamada Yoshio, the soldier from much earlier in the day.

"Yamada, I need a complete fact sheet on a Samantha Regulis, 31-December-2124."

"Yes, ma'am," and with that replied she walked back again to her chair and skimmed through the rest of the print out.


	9. Evaluation

The room was quiet, except for the Captain slowly tapping her pen against the table. The General sat opposite of her. He quietly and slowly flipped a coin in the air over and over. Finally the door into the room opened and a traditional English accent filled the room.

"Sorry, emergency surgery." The Green Earth doctor fully entered the room as he apologized. He was followed by a psychiatrist.

"I'm sorry as well. I had a suicidal client threatening to jump of a bridge." She spoke as she entered the room behind the doctor. "Thankfully, both of our patients are alright now."

"So, which report do you want to hear first?" the doctor asked after a short awkward moment of silence.

"The physical, Dr. Holt," the General answered.

"Very well," the doctor began, "Samantha has shown signs of improvement. All of her injuries appear to be healing nicely. She's still going to need several more months up to a year of recovery to be perfectly healed." He paused a moment considering that he had finished with the good news.

"Now, for the bad news. She has full retrograde amnesia; she cannot remember anything before waking up in St. Josef's. We have also mapped suspicious activity in the temporal lopes of her brain. Unfortunately, we don't know what is causing this activity or the amnesia to begin with. We suspect that trauma to the brain, such as a brain injury, or a traumatic event caused the amnesia. I believe that the best course of action is to try and introduce her to as many different locations and objects, hoping that it will jog some of her memories."

The general had leaned forward and listened intently while Dr. Holt spoke. He was an expert in the field of amnesia and brain injury which is just one of the reasons why they had moved Samantha from St. Josef's in Blue Moon to the Libertè Centre Hospitalier in Green Earth. The Captain had been taking notes through the doctor's informational talk for her and the General to review later in order to plan their course of action.

"My turn," the psychiatrist, Dr. Jacqueline Bertrand spoke. "Samantha appears to be in poor mental health due to the amnesia. She has dysthymia, which means she is depressed but is still highly functional. Basically, she can eat and have social interactions like a normal person, but she receives no pleasure from such activities. She suffers from loneliness, anxiety, and fear that could develop into hysteria if not watched and handled correctly.

I would give the same recommendation as Dr. Holt, but with the added recommendation that you hold off for a few months from traveling her around. It would also be wise to create some sort of schedule for her, one that doesn't matter where she is. It would give her some sense of security and normalcy. It would also help if she doesn't get introduced to any new people, at least for a week. It may overload her mental capacity if she continues to be introduced to more new things."

"So, you are both in agreement?" General Burns asked.

"Basically," Dr. Holt replied. "We were planning to use this next week to train the two of you how to handle her and what to do when problems arise, so you don't damage her fragile psyche. Is that alright, General?"

The General took a quick glance and the Captain who was still taking notes and replied, "Yes that will be quite alright."

"Then we should begin today. Meet us outside of her room at 1100 hours," Dr. Bertrand spoke as she and Dr. Holt left.

"Did you get all of that down?"

"Yes, sir," the Captain replied.

"Good. While their training us, we'll both be taking notes. We will meet together thirty minutes after Samantha goes to bed to get on the same page. Understood?"

"Yes, sir." He gave her a smile. The Captain was taken back at the rare facial expression. She had never seen him smile before, and she had heard that it was an absolute rarity for him to.

"I don't know whether you know this or not, but you are doing a great job."

"Uh, thank you, sir."

"You may feel that you are being too emotional with this girl," he shook his head as he spoke, "But, that is simply not true. The best soldier knows when the situation warrants being emotionless or emotional; which you seem to be learning the difference between the two different situations."

The General looked with understanding at her confused face. He figured he wasn't explaining it in the best of terms. She was also most likely hearing all this for the first time anyway.

"What I mean is, in your basic training in the army, you were trained to work aside from your emotions, become emotionless. However, it some cases; such as this one, it's better to use your emotions. You wouldn't have been able comfort her like you did back at St. Josef's."

The Captain normally would have tried to hide her emotions, but she felt it would serve no purpose. She willingly showed shock and amazement as well as a slight bit of fear. She hadn't realized that anyone had seen them, let alone him.

"You didn't know that I saw, did you?" The Captain managed a slight bob of her head to reply yes. The General's smile grew. "Ah, so I still have it after all these years, eh?" He made an exaggerated glance at his watch. "Hm, we should go down and get something to eat before our training begins."

"Y-yes, sir." The Captain was starting to regain her composure. She and the General both stood and arrived at the door around the same time.

"After you."


	10. Politicians

"So, Black Hole's been brainwashing people?" Nell asked. Sonja merely nodded. The room grew uncomfortably quiet.

The room was lacking of people. Only the really high level Allied Nations personnel were there. The lot included several generals, some politicians, the President of the Allied Nations, and some representatives for the security administrations of the countries that made up the Allied Nations.

"Was anyone of interest brainwashed?" The Green Earth Secret Intelligence Service representative spoke.

"From the files that we've decrypted, only one person stands out."

"You mean this Samantha Regulis?" a Blue Moon general asked.

"Yes, sir."

"What's so important about some fourteen year-old girl?!" Those who had already realized the importance were annoyed at the politician's comment. After working hard not to roll her eyes, Sonja opened her mouth to speak. However she was abruptly interrupted by General Burns.

"This 'girl' is the daughter of Charles Regulis, the last king of Sarissa. She went missing right after her father was assassinated. This means, that if Black Hole has documentation on her, we may be able to find her, and understand more about the destruction of Sarissa."

"Correct. Also, because we now have a list of people that were reportedly brainwashed, I'd like to look back at some of the injury reports of military personnel who were in the wars against Black Hole for those who are on the list."

"Do we really have the manpower for such a task force?!" the same politician exclaimed again. This was the only part of the job Sonja would readily admit to hating. The politicians never seemed to understand.

"Yes, sir, we do." Sonja held her voice as calm as possible.

"We will get you the reports, Sonja. We'll also include those of civilians who were injured during the wars." General Burns broke the unspoken tension between them. "Now, if that is all, I'd say that we're are all done here. Any objections?"

The room remained silent. The General spoke again: "Very well, this debriefing is concluded." He watched as most of the population of the room left. He made eye contact with Nell, and she understood its meaning. They waited patiently until everyone had left.

"You think this might help her, right?" Nell asked.

"Yes."

"So, are you going to tell Sonja?"



"No. She likes to figure things out for herself. I don't want to ruin it for her." He smiled. She had gotten used to it after fourteen years of being around him.

He hardly ever smiled or showed any kind of emotion, but that didn't mean that he didn't care. He merely wasn't the expressional type of person. She could tell by the way she had seen him interact with Samantha.  
He could keep his lips in the same unemotional line, he could keep his eyebrows from moving even a millimeter, and he could keep himself from tearing up. However, he couldn't stop his eyes from being a window into his emotional soul. After fourteen years she could read him just by one glance into his eyes.

"It would go to explain a lot." Nell watched as he went back to his unemotional facial expression as she spoke.

"Yes, it would, and it could potentially help her regain her memories." She nodded at his comment.

Their conversation was bringing up a lot of old memories. They had never really talked about the events fourteen years ago in several years. It had been pushed to the wayside as Black Hole continued to harass the world, but with the reports of Black Hole's brainwashing program, it was quickly becoming more relevant.

"Are you going to tell Samantha about it?" The General made an expression of uncertainty.

"I'm…not sure." It was the first time that he had surprised Nell in a long time. He always seemed sure of himself, no matter what. "What do you think?" After a long pause, she replied.

"I would perhaps give her some general information about the brainwashing program and wait to see if she remembers anything. Then give any relevant information to Sonja." The General thought over her suggestion.

"Then get me a meeting with her," the General spoke one last time before heading to the door.

"Yes, sir."


End file.
